School Leader: Ala. Immigration Law 'Scary' For Students

Montgomery Public Schools' officials said the state's new immigration law already is having a significant impact on the system with the potential to cost students valuable class time and the system money.

"It's scary for our children," Superintendent Barbara Thompson said. "Obviously, you don't want kids not in school at the beginning of our school year when you have instruction that's important. We want all of our kids to be able to learn."

Schools officials said within the past several days there have been an unusually high number of absences for Hispanic students. Montgomery Public Schools spokesman Tom Salter said 231 Hispanic students were absent Thursday, 116 on Friday and 102 on Monday. The system has 1,157 Hispanic students.

Salter also noted that the system's typical absentee rate is about 4 percent. The absentee rate for Hispanic students in the past three days exceeds that.